Need to prepare people to go in for digital currency: Naidu on demonetisation

Digital literacy among all sections of society is the only solution to overcoming the adverse effects of demonetisation, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said in New Delhi on Saturday.

Digital literacy among all sections of society is the only solution to overcoming the adverse effects of demonetisation, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said in New Delhi on Saturday.

Answering a volley of questions from Bobby Ghosh, Editor-in-Chief of HT Digital Streams at the penultimate session of the 14th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit-2016, Naidu admitted that demonetisation had affected everybody, rich and poor, young and old.

“But since the decision has been taken, we need to prepare people to go in for digital currency through device-to-device transfer of money, online transactions and usage of swipe machines. Of course, people still need liquid cash,” Naidu, who has been named convenor of the CMs’ panel to study the effects of demonetisation, said.

The Andhra CM claimed that in the last two and a half years, he has aggressively pushed for digitisation in administration and enabled various sections of people to switch to digital transactions and that was why his state was not so badly affected by demonetisation.

Naidu also explained how he was bringing about digital transformation in the new state by running optical fibre cable network along with the electricity distribution network.

“In the next couple of years, we plan to provide high-bandwidth internet to every household at a nominal rate of Rs 149 per month. In future, I can directly interact with farmers even in remote villages through video conferencing on their mobiles,” he said.

Naidu said he did not want to compare AP with states like Telangana or Gujarat. “I don’t mind replicating the best practices of these states… My objective is to make AP one of the top three states in the country by 2022 and one of the top 10 states in the world by 2029.”

On losing Hyderabad to Telangana, Naidu said, “It was my brainchild and I developed Cyberabad by bringing top IT companies of the world including Microsoft. I wish it continues to flourish.

At the same time, he was confident that all the big corporates and IT giants will come to invest in the new capital Amaravati. “If they don’t, they are going to lose a big opportunity,” he added.